Fast food consumers often prefer to consume certain foods with a condiment that cannot be applied to the food until the food is to be eaten, or else the quality of the food will deteriorate. For example, many people enjoy ketchup (catsup) on french fries (often just called “fries”). However, when ketchup is applied to fries, the ketchup typically soaks into the fries within a short period of time, rendering the fries soggy and unappealing. Likewise, chicken “nuggets” (also called chicken tenders or strips) are often sold by fast food establishments with a choice of condiment, such as barbeque, honey mustard or sweet and sour sauce, ranch dressing, etc. As with ketchup and fries, applying the sauce at the time of sale will result in the chicken nuggets quickly becoming soggy. With both fries and chicken nuggets, applying the condiment to the food at the time of sale also causes the food to become undesirably messy for eating with just the consumer's fingers. Most customers prefer to individually dip their fries or chicken nuggets into the condiment a few moments before eating. Accordingly, condiments for such foods are typically dispensed by fast food enterprises in disposable packets, separate from the food or even the food packaging.
While dipping sauces for nuggets have been sold in rectangular or cylindrical plastic tubs having a peel-off covering (see FIG. 7), until recently personal portions of ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, tartar sauce and relish have been predominantly dispensed by fast food enterprises in plastic or polymeric pouch-like envelopes that are torn open at one corner and squeezed to dispense the condiment. Of course, fries could not be dipped into ketchup held by such packets, requiring that the ketchup be dispensed onto a surface or into an open-top container to allow dipping. Recently, however, H.J. Heinz Company began national sales of ketchup in their “Dip & Squeeze” packets. FIGS. 6A and 6B are top and bottom perspective views of that condiment packet design, reproduced from U.S. Pat. No. D634,643. The generally-plastic packet body shown in those figures is sealed by a peel-off cover of a flexible material, as described in further detail in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0270330, and holds approximately one ounce of ketchup.
While allowing dipping of food into a condiment held by the open-top packet (once the cover is peeled off), the condiment packet design disclosed in the patent documents identified above remains problematic for use in automobiles. The packet must be held in one hand while the other hand holds and dips the food item being eaten. Alternatively, the open-top packet must rest on a generally level surface while the food item is dipped into the condiment contained therein. Normal automotive operation requires the driver to have at least one hand substantially continuously gripping the steering wheel, and passengers often do not have two free hands either. Merely setting the condiment packet on the surface of a seat, console, armrest, dashboard or the like within the vehicle leaves the packet subject to sliding, tipping and/or falling due to inertia and momentum in response to changes in the vehicle's speed or direction. Placing the packet within a cup-holder in the vehicle will usually cause the packet to be at an inconvenient position for dipping the food item in the condiment, since the cup-holder will normally be too deep and narrow to allow easy dipping of a food item held in a person's hand.
There is, therefore, a need in the art for an improved condiment packet holder.